The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-02-05

hol keeps them within the body; hence
the unhealthy load of fat which the
bloated and blotched drunkard carries
about with him, if he have plenty of
food to eat. Alcohol suspends anima-
tion-puts on the brakes, slows up It's
sue change, and conduces to passivity,
or sort of life which is perhaps more
purely allied to death than to true liv-
ing. DR.. Parkes found that even mod
crate amounts of alcohol administered
to laboring man deranged the hearts
action and greatly lessened his working
power.
Hence it is not true food, not an ac-
cessory therefore it must be either
a medicine or poison. But all medi-
cines, practically, are poisons, when
taken in any but very small doses. Let
us quote DIR, Foote, of New York, on
this subject.
| THE origin Of alcohol will give us q strong
clue as to is nature. It is the product fputre-
| factive processes found more in dead than in
| living tissues, and its main source is the fer
| mentation due TO the activity OF low form Of
animal life. 1t appears TO be on excrementory
| product, and its physiological action also con-
| firms this view Of its nature. Ammonia is an
| other product Of excretion, and the effects Of
/ alcohol and ammonia are so similar in i'm
| portant points that DR.. Wood puts them
| in the same class in HIS Matera Medica They
are called local irrtants, cardiac stimulants,
and nerve paralyzers Thus far we have found
that alcohol appears to possess some OF the
true properties Of food; that If we may Judge
by such indications as its chemical nature and
its origin, it is to animal life more like an ash
than like food, that unlike food it is quickly
eliminated through many channels, and that
while retained in the tissue it retains life action
in that it slows the process OF cell growth and
retards tissue change that in fact 1t suspends.
life instead Of supporting it, and that the study
| OF its poisonous effects shows that its influence
is all in the direction of death producing rather
| than life-giving. In short, it is poisoner OF
| living tissue, and q preserver of dead tissue
Alcohol is known TO reduce the tempera-
| ture or bodily heat, except in those who are
habituated to it. 1t lessons the oxygen-bearing
power Of the red corpuscles, and retards the
| elimination Of carbonio acid gas 1t retards
metabolism-tissue change NITROUS elimina-
| ton. The weight Of evidence tends to show
| that 1t diminishes the excretion Of urea
| Locally, it initiates the mucous membrane, i'm
pairs the stomach's digestion, increases the
rapidity of the hearts action, shortens the
period OF the hearts rest paralyzes the mi
numbs brain and nerve tissue. 1t produces
| irritation, congestion, and revusion wherever
| 1t strikes. 1t hardens the connective tissue
| which goes TO make up the structure of the
| body, and softens degenerates glandular
tissue-that is, the active living cellular sub
stance which in every organ really attends 70
| or carries on the process Of life"
1t is classed as a medicine with am
monia. Would any one take ammonia
for steady drinkP There is not one
of its medical uses but that there is a
better remedy now at the command Of
physician. Almost the only use that
is made Of it in medicine is as a stimu--
liant of the hearts action. Nitro
glycerine does the work better, and
leaves no reaction like alcohol. The
main features of alcohol's action are
those of poison. 1t deranges func-
tons, stops healthful activity, para
lyzes, deadens and destroys. 1t is
poison, and more baneful than any
other poison, because it comes to man
disguised in beer, wine and stronger
| liquors. Toledo Blade.